Cara's POV
I gulped. "She ran off after we thought you two had fallen into the moat. I'd never seen her like that before, it was like her vision clouded over, like it fogged over with rage."
"Then why isn't anyone looking for her?" Kieran snapped.
"Because we were trying to look for the both of you."
Kieran made a feeble attempt at sitting up before groaning and bringing his arms to wrap around his chest.
"Kieran you're not going anywhere." Arya sighed. "I will stay with you at the van. Luke and Cara can go look for Elodie."
Kieran frowned and then allowed himself to cling onto Arya and slowly limp back into the woods.
"She ran towards the courtyard. Follow me." I said, leading Luke to press ourselves against the wall of the courtyard.
"Wait, shut up. Look." Luke whispered, pointing at the east window where we could very clearly see Elodie pacing the corridor.
"Shit." I sighed. "Let's go."
We started moving through the tunnel on the far left, eventually finding ourselves in a clearing with a grand staircase in the middle.
"Harry, why have you left your post?"
I turned to look at the direction of the voice, pushing Luke to hide behind a pillar where we had a clear view of the person speaking.
He was facing the back of another guard, the back labelled 'Harry.'
Harry said nothing, reaching up to scratch the side of his head. As he did so, a small piece of blond hair fell out between his fingers.
My mouth dropped open.
If there was one thing Elodie was good at, it was deception.
"Luke." I whispered. "Don't say a word, but I'm 99% sure that's Elodie."
"What?" I hushed him and continued to stare.
"Harry?" The guard said confused, beginning to walk forwards to tap 'Harry' on the back.
At that moment I trusted my intuition and rushed forwards, pushing the guard onto his back and placing my knee in between his shoulder blades to hold him down.
That was when Elodie turned around, and I sighed with relief.
She remained emotionless. "Hi, thank you."
I nodded "Of course. How did you get back to this room so quickly?"
She looked at me and shrugged. "Never mind." I spoke. "We need to get out, now."
"No."
"What?" I whispered.
"They killed Kieran and Arya, I want nothing more than to kill them." She said."
"Isn't this Hunter's floor?" Luke said, wandering around in circles.
Elodie nodded.
"Kieran and Arya are okay. They survived." I rushed to say.
"What?"
With my words, footsteps echoed from the south corridor, inching closer and closer to where we were stood.
"Shit, move. We've got to go." Luke whispered, pulling us both in the direction we had come from.
"What about Hunter?" Elodie whispered.
But her words were lost and carried elsewhere in the air as she was dragged backwards by Luke, who wanted nothing more than to get out. He'd lost all consideration for anyone but her.
It wasn't the Luke any of us associated with betraying Elodie. He acted like a completely changed person.
In some weird way, he was acting like Kieran.
I hoped that it wasn't a plea to win Elodie back. Because acting like someone else could never be right, especially knowing full well he was impersonating the person who Elodie was so clearly in love with.
Elodie's POV
The three of us didn't stop running until we believed we were in any way safe. From the corner of my eye, I spotted Arya help Kieran limp towards us, feeling my stomach flip, until all five of us were pilling into the van and Luke was fiddling with the ignition.
"Luke, go!" Arya shouted nervously.
He finally got it working and before any other words could be spoken, he was reversing quickly. A thud behind us signalled that we'd hit someone.
"Shit, Luke." I said, slapping a hand over my mouth.
He slammed his foot on the acceleration and we skidded onto the road, getting out of the area as fast as we could.
In that moment, we could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
And just as my vision began to fade, I felt myself melt into the arms of the warm body beside me.
Kieran kissed the top of my head and the both of us passed out within minutes.
Luke's POV
Just as the van began its journey, pulling away from the castle grounds, I glanced up at the rear-view mirror and thought I caught a glimpse of someone running out behind the van. Sighing in defeat and tucking a piece of hair behind their ear.
***
Elodie's POV
"Elodie!" I heard a voice shout, just as my eyes fluttered open and the world started to form around me.
I was encased by soft covers, my banging headache having eased throughout the night.
We were back at camp.
Forcing my exhausted body to stand, I slipped on a pair of converses and shook my body off.
I pushed open the doors and was met with the warm sun beating down on me, a smile forming on my face as I spotted the twins running towards me, pulling the two of them into a hug.
"We missed you." Bryony mumbled into my side.
I pulled them in closer and knelt down "You have no idea."